N.C.

For several months now, Alaina Giordano, a North Carolina mom fighting Stage 4 breast cancer, has been waging an equally tenacious battle with the legal system to keep custody of her children. On Friday, she announced that she had lost.

Friday is June 17, a day teeming with significance. On this day in 1928, Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly across the Atlantic. In 1972, five guys were arrested for breaking into the Watergate complex. This year, it very nearly marked the day that Alaina Giordano said goodbye to her children.